Coastline Housing: Fostering community and sustainability
25 July 2025
Chi Winder offers a safe place to stay and a range of services for homeless adults with complex needs...providing them with dignity, opportunity and onsite access to the support and services they need.
I’m sat reflecting on two amazing days visiting PlaceShapers’ members Westward Housing Association and Coastline Housing Association in Devon and Cornwall.
My train left at 2.15pm, and I’m currently enjoying stunning views of the south coast on my 8 ½ hour journey home to Yorkshire.
It’s a part of the country I’ve been looking forward to visiting for a few years and was joined by PlaceShapers Chief Executive Catherine Ryder, who will write a blog about the great things we saw at Westward with its Chief Executive Stephen Lodge. I’m going to reflect what we saw with Allister Young, Chief Executive at Coastline.
As it turned out, we only saw Allister for half the day, because he was engaged with Coastline’s inspection and meetings with the regulator. But rather than try to re-arrange, he connected us with his staff, who became as much a part of my reflections of the day as the schemes they showed us.
The first place we went to was Chi Winder. It offers a safe place to stay and a range of services for homeless adults with complex needs.
The first thing that strikes you when you arrive is the building. It’s stunning. The photo below doesn’t do it justice (poor selfie skills on my part) but everything about the building is excellent. It is designed specifically for the people who use the service, providing them with dignity, opportunity and onsite access to the support and services they need. We were met by Abby Hack, whose passion for helping people appeared limitless. Her enthusiasm for what she leads is infectious, and it seemed that nothing was too much trouble to help the people Chi Winder was built to serve.
Whilst at Chi Winder we also met Tamsyn Pegler who leads the volunteer scheme that Coastline runs. It has between 50-55 volunteers – the number changes as people inevitably move on but there are always new people joining. Whether it’s giving time to cut the hair of the people using Chi Winder, or helping with gardening, the service seems to adapt to whatever the people volunteering can offer. They are registered with Investing in Volunteers scheme, which is something we haven’t seen in the sector before. Tamsyn is similarly committed to what Coastline are trying to do, which is a theme I heard from the many staff we met during the day.
We did have some time with Allister and Coastline Chair Francesca Rhodes and had lunch with the management team, before visiting Miners Court, an extra care scheme, and a new build scheme for the over 55’s just around the corner. As a 58 year old, I would happily live in either. Staff member Dan Price showed us round, who was equally enthusiastic about his role at Coastline.
We finished off looking at some older housing, and the saw the solar panels that Coastline are installing. By the end of the year, they will have installed solar panels to over 300 homes, taking their stock to over 90% EPC ‘C’ compliant. Pretty impressive by any standards.
I had high expectations of my visit to Devon and Cornwall, and I was not disappointed. The area is a beautiful place to live, yet we saw and heard about many of the same housing and support challenges you see all over the country, including areas that suffer from surprisingly high levels of deprivation and are in need of regeneration.
There’s loads we’ll be taking away from our visit to Coastline – not just the impressive buildings or projects, but the energy, commitment and spirit that runs through everything they do. We’ll be sharing what we learned with the wider PlaceShapers network so others can be inspired too – whether it’s how to make volunteering really work, designing spaces that give people dignity, or pushing ahead on sustainability. There’s so much good stuff happening here, and we’re looking forward to passing it on.
So if you want to help people, and are looking for a move – you could do much worse than consider this area. You just have to be prepared for a long journey if you visit anywhere else!! It’s now 7pm, just four more hours to home…